The Collaboration Services network was launched in October 2013 by Markit in partnership with Thomson Reuters and eight major banks. It includes a directory and an address book of more than 250,000 individuals from the financial services industry.

The move provides financial industry professionals with a more vast network of business contacts and keeps the compliance risks at bay. With recent investigations by global regulators into the banks’ business conduct, particularly relating to the fixings of the LIBOR and more recently the FX fixing investigations, the move is seen as an alternative providing more openness to the process.

Despite banks having all those secure channels for communication, they are reliable for what is being communicated through those channels and for managing their own messaging infrastructure, while keeping compliance in check is becoming increasingly difficult and cost inefficient.

According to the Principal Director of Data and Analytics Research at the TABB Group, Paul Rowady, “Instant messaging and other chat tools are embedded in the workflows of financial services professionals because they are simply indispensable.”

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“However, spending on these tools is now under scrutiny by trading and investment firms. Compliance and security are also areas of concern.Innovations like the open network from Markit and Thomson Reuters are solid examples of new tools that aim to deliver better communications and collaboration functionality to the industry at a lower cost,” he stated.

The Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI) was a founding member of Markit Ltd’s (NASDAQ:MRKT) Collaboration Services network, and the move doesn’t come as a big surprise. It’s rather an endorsement of the protocol, by adding one of the firm’s premium products, Eikon, to fully support the network’s functionality and deliver it more efficiently to even more financial market professionals.

“The integration of the Markit directory into Eikon Messenger is just the latest development in the continuing evolution of our instant messaging service,” said Thomson Reuters’ Global Head of Communication, Yvette Jackson.

Markit’s Global Head of Processing, Brad Levy, stated in the company announcement, “Thomson Reuters has been a key part of the open messaging network initiative from the start.”

“Our vision has been to bring best in class assets from multiple vendors together in an open environment, to benefit all parts of the financial industry. Our integrated directory service shows how service providers are working together to create an industry-wide solution,” he explained.

The move brings Eikon one step further in its effort to compete in the delivery of an integrated platform for the delivery of information to financial industry professionals. For now its major competitor, the Bloomberg Professional service, is enjoying a comfortable lead. The firm’s 320,000 subscribers exchange about 200 million messages daily, according to latest figures publicized by the firm.